


Choosing

by eluna



Category: Legacies (TV 2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Emotional Hurt, F/M, Hope Mikaelson & Josie Saltzman Rivalry, Hurt No Comfort, POV Hope Mikaelson, Polyamory, Post-Episode: s02e06 That's Nothing I Had to Remember, Unhappy Ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-25
Updated: 2019-11-25
Packaged: 2021-02-25 21:55:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,110
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21562573
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eluna/pseuds/eluna
Summary: Landon catches Hope watching and blanches, his face paling and his smile dropping off, and he lets go of Josie, like now, in the dining hall, where he shifts down the table until he and Josie are no longer brushed up together side by side, and Josie follows his gaze to Hope and tosses her a glare and lets out a sigh that Hope can see from where she’s huddled by Rafael, as if he can distract her, as if anyone is enough to hide her from what she agreed to, is the kicker, because Hope agreed to this, but she doesn’t know how much longer she can stand it.This isn’t sustainable. She knows that. But Josie isn’t going anywhere, and Hope doesn’t want to lose Landon, and that’s the thing, isn’t it?
Relationships: Landon Kirby/Hope Mikaelson, Landon Kirby/Josie Saltzman
Comments: 8
Kudos: 19





	Choosing

**Author's Note:**

> First fic in this fandom, hi! I literally binged this entire show in less than a week before writing this, so I'm sorry if any characterizations are off. Warning: not a happy consensually-poly story.

“I’m still pissed at you for not telling me you were back,” says Landon, and something inside of Hope just _snaps_ and she says—“No.”

“ _No_? What do you mean, _no_?”

“I mean _no_. You don’t get to play that card on me. You know, for _months_ , I had to watch as everyone who had ever meant anything to me forgot about me—moved on without me—and I couldn’t, because I had nowhere to go and no one to go to anymore. Dr. Saltzman knew, but he didn’t _remember_ —I didn’t _matter_ to him like I used to—and telling him just made me feel even more alone. What do you think would have happened, really, if I had told you? Would you even have believed me? And even if you did, what, do you think you would have suddenly felt the same way about me that you used to, the way I still felt about you that _you_ didn’t feel about _me_?”

“Hope—”

“ _No_!” she repeats, brushing strands of hair impatiently out of her face. She’s trembling with rage and—something else. Regret, maybe, but not regret at not telling him; regret at allowing herself to be dragged back out of Malivore for _this_ , perhaps. “And for the record, I _did_ tell you what we meant to each other. I told you when the oni was inside you, and for a second that _thing_ let me think that it was all going to be okay, that you knew, and then it took that away from me, too. So forgive me for not having the will to build myself up for you to tear me down _twice_.”

“Okay. Okay. _Okay_.” Landon’s eyebrows are furrowed and he’s holding up his hands in a gesture of surrender, not that Hope feels like doing anything other than melting down and lashing out until the balloon of fury inside of her pops. She’s panting like she’s just run a marathon, and crying, too, but she doesn’t know if they’re tears of anger or sadness. Both, probably, not that she wants to admit it to herself.

“And now you _remember_ , and it’s _all_ I wanted, but it doesn’t change the fact that you’re with Josie, and…”

“Hope, I’m not going to choose her over you,” says Landon gently, and her spirit starts to swell until he adds, “But I’m not going to choose you over her, either.”

Hope hesitates, a frown playing at the corners of her mouth. “I’m not seeing a third option here, Landon.”

“Well, either one of you gets fed up and leaves me, or…”

* * *

Sharing Landon with Josie is hard, and that’s coming from someone who’s had a lifetime of monster-fighting- _hard_. She thinks it’s fair that neither of them should have to give him up, or maybe Hope is just afraid of having to go back to a world without Landon by her side, except this time he’ll remember her and not want her _anyway_ (and she can’t decide whether that would be better or worse than before). But just because it’s fair doesn’t mean she has to like it, and she really doesn’t like—

—sharing a lab desk in Chemistry of Magic with Lizzie Saltzman while Josie accidentally turns Landon’s hair blue, giggling and teasing him and flicking turquoise curls out of his eyes, letting her fingers play tenderly over his face, blushing, grinning, as Landon does the same, and Lizzie elbows Hope in the gut when she catches her not paying attention, but how can Hope _pay attention_ when Landon is—

—holding hands casually with Josie in the memorial library, poring over a textbook but stopping every so often to engulf her in a hug, or rub noses, or kiss her on the cheek, and Hope feels like she is _drowning_ until Landon—

—catches Hope watching and blanches, his face paling and his smile dropping off, and he lets go of Josie, like now, in the dining hall, where he shifts down the table until he and Josie are no longer brushed up together side by side, and Josie follows his gaze to Hope and tosses her a glare and lets out a sigh that Hope can _see_ from where she’s huddled by Rafael, as if he can distract her, as if anyone is enough to hide her from what she _agreed_ to, is the kicker, because Hope _agreed_ to this, but she doesn’t know how much longer she can stand it.

This isn’t sustainable. She knows that. But Josie isn’t going anywhere, and Hope doesn’t want to lose Landon, and that’s the thing, isn’t it?

She’s so desperate to make it work that she actually approaches Josie about it, suggesting that they switch off days or work out some other schedule, that they avoid outward affection in shared classes and other unavoidably mutual spaces. But Josie just throws her a cold look and says, “ _You_ decided to erase yourself from Landon’s life when you threw yourself into Malivore. _You_ did that to him. You don’t get to just take it back and reinsert yourself into the life he’s tried to build with me in your absence.”

* * *

“Are you mad at me?” Landon asks in a world-weary voice, like he knows what the answer’s going to be and already doesn’t like it.

“No,” says Hope, because what she’s feeling isn’t _anger_. They’re in Hope’s room, lying together on her bed, Hope’s back pressed against his torso, and she sighs when he leans forward and presses a kiss to the back of her head, then another one to her exposed temple.

She twists in his arms so that they’re face to face and then says, “I don’t know how much longer I can do this.”

“Okay,” he says. “Okay.”

And then he’s kissing her, and Hope remembers all the reasons she doesn’t want to let this go, until the door opens and Josie’s voice calls out, “Oops! I can come back later.”

Hope just wants to sink into her pillow and let Landon get rid of her, but she knows she probably can’t, because if Josie is coming to _Hope’s_ room instead of Landon’s, it must be because there’s a problem; this is supposed to be their safe space _away_ from Josie. And sure enough, when Landon asks what’s up, Josie just says with a tight-lipped smile, “We have another monster. Dad asked me to come get Hope.”

Landon kisses Josie’s cheek on their way out from the room, and Hope decides right then that she’s done, that she’s ending this as soon as the monster is gone—but she doesn’t.

Of course she doesn’t.

And so on.


End file.
